Spring Break: Copenhagen

Thursday March 23

Getting there

A nice man at a hotel at 5am let us print boarding passes – forgot to do it the night before because we were celebrating being done with midterms and there is a 40 euro fee for Ryanair if you don’t print your boarding pass. No problems getting to the city – there is a train that connects the short ride seamlessly

People are immediately very kind bc we were looking lost and someone approached us and helped with directions to the street we couldn’t find

This dog was just sitting here alone with no leash

Picked up keys to our air bnb at a cafe called Bang & Jensen and people there very nice and friendly. Airbnb was nice. A small apartment by Louise but she wasn’t there when we got there. Clean and wifi so all good.

Our airbnb room

First impressions

Took some time to collect our things and set off to a cafe called Mad & Kaffe (food and coffee) and were pleasantly surprised with the brunch food. I got two open faced sandwiches which required a fork to eat and Jordan got a yummy salad with bread and soft goat cheese which was to die for.

By this time we had already noted the very beautiful Danish people – all blonde, fair and bright blue eyes. Very natural beauty too because no one wore much makeup or flashy clothes.

We walked to the main downtown area which was about a 15 minute walk and happened upon some trampolines built into the walkway along the canal which was cool. We jumped on them to warm up a little bit because the wind was getting to us.We were able to find the picturesque canal of Copenhagen and sat along the canal to people watch for awhile. It also felt nice to sit in the sun. It was about 4 or 5pm and there are already many Danish people sitting and relaxing with their friends.

So many bikes!

Trampolines in sidewalk

Pedestrian bridge

Ramen hit the spot

Before dinner, we had some tea at the student run coffee house for University of Copenhagen– this was my second choice for study abroad so it was cool to see where I would have been. There was some live music and a full bar. Since it was pretty cold and windy, we decided to go to a ramen place for dinner called king ramen (I think) which was close to our air bnb. It was refreshing and spicy which did the trick to warm us up. Even after a pretty easy day of travel, we were exhausted and went to bed early.

Friday March 24

The next morning we were able to sleep in and explore our trendy neighborhood on the way to the BEST GROCERY STORE EVER. So luxurious compared to Conad it had everything. We got some breakfast foods as well as ingredients to make pbj’s for one meal a day. We quickly discovered that the food is crazy expensive in Copenhagen and we would have to pace ourselves by eating one meal out per day. We made some sandwiches to go and ate some yogurt for breakfast before heading to our free walking tour.

Walking tour

Our guide’s name was Dan O but we called him Dino all day because he is Australian and we didn’t understand him when he introduced himself. He lived in Copenhagen for about 8 years and was compassionate and knowledgeable about the city and country.

All of the Danish children wore these jumpsuits

Notes from the interesting tour:

The Danish people were polled as the happiest people in the world… but that title was stolen from them two weeks before spring break by Norway so now they are the second happiest people in the world. I could definitely tell that people were happy in general but I also credited the good weather for that. Something that was pretty obvious was the huge biking culture in Copenhagen. Most people travel by bike and the Danes are super friendly until you get in their way on the bike – then they turn into “biking Vikings”. Speaking of the Vikings, something I thought was cool was that they used ravens to help them navigate the seas because they knew if they released the raven it would try to fly towards land and they could follow that raven. We learned a lot about the royal families through history: Lots of Frederick and Christians. More about the Danish people: they are the second best non-native English speakers. They have a very short work day. They were the first country in the world to abolish slave trade and accept same sex marriage. They are so happy and have a word, Hygge, that basically means cosiness. Hai is hello and haihaai is bye. Tak is thanks. Taxes are between 39 and 53% but the citizens get a lot back from it. Cars are especially expensive with a tax of almost 200%! Danish queen is part of the oldest royal family in Europe, so actually the more famous Queen of England would bow to her if they met. Also, the Queen is super badass – she has three degrees and speaks 6 languages from Sorbonne, London school of Economics and Cambridge. Designs and makes the costumes for the opera house and translated Lord of the Rings from English to Danish. AND has works of art on display in museums in Copenhagen.

Our lunch spot in the sun

At the end of the tour, we sat at a lovely dock to eat our picnic and relax in the sun for awhile. It was really nice and clean. After about an hour break, we found a shop to get beer to drink for our boat tour through Copenhagen. It was pretty cold because of the wind but otherwise really fun because our guide, Oliver had a really dry sarcastic sense of humor.

Paper island – food

Opera house

After hearing about it and seeing it all day, we decided to go to a place called paper island for dinner. It was supposed to be the cheapest and best place to eat in the city. It was like an indoor food market with permanent stalls. I convinced Jordan to sample some Indian food (butter chicken) and she actually really liked it so we both got it. Very delicious! Still $15 but in Copenhagen that is cheap I guess. We watched the sunset while eating outside and hurried home because it was cold.

Paper Island

Danish Italian greyhound!

Night life

On the way home, we stopped to get some beers because we were going to go out later.

After cracking them open at the air bnb it took only one sip to realize that they were alcohol free beers 😑. At least they were kinda cheap. We bought a beer on the walk over to a “club” called Jolene over in the meat packing district near us. When we got there at around 11 it’s was kinda empty and we stood around while before meeting some people to chat with. They were local Copenhagen people and it was cool to talk to the locals and they all spoke really good English. Only downside is that they smoked cigarettes the entire time we were there. 30 minutes later the place was packed the the dance floor was bumpin. We danced awhile but eventually got tired and went home.

Saturday March 25

The best avocado I’ve had in so long ❤

The next morning we had a late start and enjoyed some avocado toast with the most perfect avocado. It is great when you have time to go on a tour and then see the other things the guide recommends. We started by going to Christiana aka the free state of Copenhagen. This is an independent state of Copenhagen where they have their own laws – it is a place mostly known for selling weed. It was kinda weird to be honest and we didn’t stay much longer than we had to.

Jordan and I sat along a canal outside of Christiana and ate our packed lunches while sitting in the sun. We walked a ways more and decided to go to the Parliament House because there was a free lookout point that had an elevator (no climbing stairs!!!).

Walking walking walking and it was already time for dinner…so we went back to paper island and I got Chinese street food and Jordan got some tacos. After, she got a crème bruleed doughnut that was sooooo delectable. Lots more walking and we ended up at the university of Copenhagen student cafe again to get a beer. Accidentally got the draft special so it was super expensive for an IPA. We left immediately after finishing the beer because the worst music I’ve ever heard in my life had started playing live. It was bad enough that within the first song almost everyone had cleared out. I wish I had a video recording of the music to prove how awful it was. To make up for it, on the way home we stopped to watch a street performer who was killin it on his guitar and we danced in the streets.

Sunday March 26

This is our last day in Copenhagen so we left with a bang… real Copenhagen brunch back at Mad & Kaffe. There was a short wait when we got there so we got to wait outside where there was a little park in the boulevard in the street. The weather was amazing today: the sun was out and it was pretty warm so all of the Danes were in an especially good mood. We were seated within 10 minutes and took a long time to order because we really couldn’t decide.

After the best brunch ever, we walked around the city one last time and finally did some shopping. I got a bracelet and Jordan got some shoes – the best souvenirs!

Next stop: Edinburgh

Our flight was at 10pm to Edinburgh so we took our time getting to the airport and everything went fine for the most part. We had to illegally ride the train to the airport because our credit cards weren’t working and we had no cash. Could have gone really badly but we got lucky! The flight coming in before us was late so that delayed our super short flight by almost an hour. We land in Edinburgh with the giggles because we are so tired and don’t have any Pounds so we are running around trying to buy a bus ticket to the city center. Eventually made it to our hostel in Edinburgh – the Kickass Hostel – around 1:30 and woke the smelly boys in our room, oops.

In summary

I really really really liked Copenhagen and the whole vibe they had going there. It would be an amazing, yet expensive place to live. We also got lucky with the weather there and the sun was out on most days – this is a rare occurrence in Copenhagen and I can imagine that it can get gloomy and cold there.